F EATURE : BA K ER Y
A New Homeowner for Homemade Goodies? A popular bakery is looking for a new steward to serve the neighborhood by Joseph G. Brin
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fter 22 years of cracking eggs and churning out great homestyle baked goods, business owner Roz Bratt is looking to hand over the reins of her 5th Street bakery to “the right person with the same passion,” departing from the sweet smells, hot ovens and flour dust of her trade. “I want to travel,” she says. A lack of good, reliable help and time itself has caught up with Bratt, who looks to fulfill other ambitions now that she has delivered on her dream of Homemade Goodies by Roz. In 1992, Bratt was employed as a bank teller when a chance came to provide home-baked treats to a 3rd Street luncheonette, signaling her true calling. The ingredients to her long-term success are good help, good product, and getting the word out, she says. Though traditional, Italian family bakeries dot South Philadelphia, it's unusual to see a kosher Jewish bakery set into a block with a Chinese restaurant, a dry cleaner, and hairdresser, just around the corner from the clamoring crowds of South Street. Always looking for new business strategies, Bratt expanded her kosher, nondairy offerings to include vegan baked goods, supplying Passyunk Avenue’s new vegan restaurant Avenue Cup. Wholesalers such as Weavers Way Co-op, Cafe La
Queen Village Quarterly Crier \\ FALL 2019
Roz Bratt
Maude, and Di Bruno Bros. have propelled her business along with synagogue events, parties, and weddings of any religion. She caters to walk-ins, too, though such patronage is limited by comparison. Homemade Goodies by Roz made good on a customer's surprising request
Photo by Joseph G. Brin recently—the 307-foot-long WWII submarine Becuna, docked on the Delaware River, celebrated its 75th birthday with an elaborate chocolate cake topped with chocolate roses. “You have to love what you're doing,” Bratt says. “Work is not a job.” ■
